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Numerical Study of Magnesium Production by Pidgeon Process and Pre-prepared Pellets Silicothermic Process: Comparison of Heat Transfer

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Magnesium Technology 2017

Part of the book series: The Minerals, Metals & Materials Series ((MMMS))

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Abstract

A novel process of magnesium production has been developed by changing the preparation method of pellets of silicothermic process. For the method, the pellets consist of dolomite, ferrosilicon, fluorite and binder, which need to be roasted before reduction. After calcinations, porous pellets were obtained due to the decomposition of dolomite in the pellets. Heat transfer of the porous pellets is different from that of pellets used in Pidgeon process. In the present paper, a comparative study on heat transfer of the novel process and Pidgeon process was carried out by numerical method. The results indicated that heat transfer in Pidgeon pellets is slightly better than that in the porous pellets. For the novel process, the center temperature in a retort of 300 mm-diameter reaches 1473 K after heating the retort at 1523 K for 2.3 h (without considering reaction heat), which needs 4.8 h for the Pidgeon process.

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Acknowledgements

This research was supported by the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities of China (N130302006, N140204013, N130102002, N130702001), National Natural Science Foundation of China under Grant (51504058; U1508217; 51404054; 51374064) and Education Department of Liaoning Province (LZ2014021).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Key Laboratory of Ecological Metallurgy of Multi-Metal Intergrown Ores of Education Ministry, Special Metallurgy and Process Engineering Institute, School of Metallurgy of Northeastern University, Shenyang, 110819, China

    Daxue Fu, Ting-an Zhang, Zhi-he Dou, Lukui Guan & Ming Wen

Authors
  1. Daxue Fu
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  2. Ting-an Zhang
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  3. Zhi-he Dou
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  4. Lukui Guan
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  5. Ming Wen
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Correspondence to Daxue Fu .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Arizona State University , Tempe, Arizona, USA

    Kiran N. Solanki

  2. Lund University , Lund, Skåne Län, Sweden

    Dmytro Orlov

  3. Structural Materials Unit, National Inst for Materials Sci Structural Materials Unit, Tsukuba, Ibaraki, Japan

    Alok Singh

  4. IND LLC , South Jordan, Utah, USA

    Neale R. Neelameggham

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Fu, D., Zhang, Ta., Dou, Zh., Guan, L., Wen, M. (2017). Numerical Study of Magnesium Production by Pidgeon Process and Pre-prepared Pellets Silicothermic Process: Comparison of Heat Transfer. In: Solanki, K., Orlov, D., Singh, A., Neelameggham, N. (eds) Magnesium Technology 2017. The Minerals, Metals & Materials Series. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-52392-7_18

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